"Access for all: Basic public services for 1.3 billion people"

The 2007/08 China National Human Development Report, "Basic Public Services for 1.3 Billion People" focuses on internal gaps in the delivery of four essential basic public services—primary and junior secondary education, basic health care, social security (including retirement, medical, workplace injury, unemployment and maternity insurance) and employment services. The key service gaps that are examined are those between urban and rural areas, coastal and interior areas, between registered urban residents and internal migrants and between women and men, and the discussion is put in the context of the government’s policy goal of “equalization” of basic public services. Direct causal linkages between gaps in public service provision and the quality of life in China are examined, such as the correlation between access to good health care and life expectancy in different parts of the country. The concluding chapter offers nine important policy recommendations covering cross-cutting obstacles to more equitable service delivery. The report touches on some of the most critical policy questions that China faces in its shift from a planned state-dominated economy with an egalitarian social ideology, to a market-based economy and service-oriented state. National and provincial trends in Human Development and in many critical social indicators are presented in a lengthy statistical appendix.